Our series of summer sessions was quite lush this year. We kicked it off early hosting artists like Of Monsters and Men and Foals at our desert vacation spot, and brought it back home to our East Coast HQ with Gregory Alan Isakov and Hanson. But the balmy season was capped with the charming harmonies and banjo twang of British folk trio Bear's Den, who transformed the Baeble backyard with their sedating folk hymnals "Agape", and "Pompeii". The group, a signee of Communion Records, which was co-founded by Ben Lovett of Mumford and Sons, recently released their five-track debut EP Agape, which you can purchase here.

Yeah I know that I have got it so wrong] To touch your voice] Even though] I still want to hear them everyday] But I can't let it go] say. For I'm so scared of losing you] About it] And leave me here on my own] who I am without you.] Yeah I know that I have got it so wrong] To touch you now] For I'm so scared of losing you] About it] And leave me here on my own] who I am without you] I don't want to know] For I'm so scared of losing you] About it] And leave me here on my own] Tell me how long love before you go] I know it] without you] - When I think of Agape, I think of when we were in the studio recording it. Joey sang into a banjo, going through an effects thing into an amp and it sounds like a whale, like just throughout the entire track we recorded it just sounds like this Orca whale, wailing in the distance and that's probably what I think of first when I think of Agape. - If you can't play the banjo, sing into it. - I think we have like, quite a mixture of things that we're trying to incorporate into our music. It's really hard for us to. I mean, it's kind of, we're happy people like you exist because we can't really define what we do. We just, it comes just natural to us really. I think there's so many different ways we approach music. - And part of the reason you might have pointed out is just that, the sense of storytelling with some of the songs and I think wall starts, kind of, perceived as being a folk music thing. It's not really, I think all, sort of, a lot of, you know, like great films tell great stories and there's different ways to tell a story and I think that, was, been associated with folk music is something that we're trying to, we're looking to make something that isn't just defined by that one genre. - I think with Pompeii, one of the really amazing things about that song is seeing how people react to it, live. It obviously has an amazing like, immediacy to people because even when we play it to people who have never heard it before, you can kind of see people. Yeah, you can see people from the stage reacting to it as you're playing it and I think, that song, perhaps more than any others, has that immediate effect on an audience and that's, yeah, that's really great to be a part of that. - I think Davie's song writing kind of dictates a lot of what goes, how the song ends up sounding. - I'm not going to compare myself to Ernest Hemingway right now but, Hemingway used to say that, he'd write stories like an iceberg and then you see the top of it but 80% of it is underneath and you can't see it, so like, between the words, there's loads of meaning. And so, it's kind of what you don't say which leaves the interpretation to someone else and that's kind of why I want to do it really. I want other people to find their own stuffing it as well as tell my own thing, if that makes sense. Does that make sense? - We had a girl cry on us. That was quite crazy. That was weird. - She cried on me and she got her tears on my shirt and then said to me that Joey was her favorite member of the band. and I was just like, why didn't you cry on his shirt? - Salty rain. - We make a point after shows of signing on merch and going out and meeting people it's really nice for us to be able to talk to them afterwards because, we have been in bands before where you finish the show and you sit backstage and analyze the gig and get really depressed about how you didn't have a very good sound, a real monotone sound. We just want to hangout with everyone, get to know people and we see the same faces over and over again, it's so nice for us. I was in Greece for a week last year and that's kind of Agape's Greek, where a lot of stuff came from being in Greece, really weirdly like, gave me some intellect in writing. You can write about lots of things and Isaac was something that I feel like, the story of Isaac and in the Bible, it sort of, whatever anyone's religious views are aside, it's just an interesting story and I never really seen it or imagined it from Isaac's perspective and that was kind of where that song came from. You're about to be sacrificed by your dad, how do you feel? Imagine interviewing Isaac kind of thing and that was where that came from, for me and how I would've felt whether I could've understood it or not but it's a bit cheesy and quite lame. I watched it from afar] to part Isaac, can you see me now?] I worshiped the ground you walk upon] That a father's love must be earned] I have never seen you look so afraid] against the stone You look so alone] I watched as your life just fell apart] Why a fathers love must be earned] How to love you]

Artist Bio

Bear's Den are London trio Andrew Davie, Joey Haynes, and Kevin Jones. The music they make is wholesome, warm, and engaging, and takes its influence from the likes of Being There era Wilco, Ryan Adams, and a wealth of both folk and alt-country reference points.

The ethos of DIY is at the heart of everything Bear's Den have done since their inception. Charging around the UK in a van playing to any venue that would have them, picking up support tours with the likes of Of Men And Monsters, Smoke Fairies, and Matt Corby, and concluding 2012 with a support slot for Mumford and Sons at London's O2 Arena, Bear's Den took time out and relocated to a cottage in Wales to record their debut EP, sold only at shows last year, and went on to record this Agape EP in Norfolk with Kristoffer Harris.